Tuesday, June 28, 2011

In the Vajrayana ("Diamond Vehicle") of Tibet, the vajra, or lightening bolt (called dorje in Tibet) is the central image of gnosis.

The dorje is the symbol of the clear, immutable essence of reality that is the basis of everything. Its immaculate transparency, which nevertheless gives rise to a profusion of manifestations [i.e., the phenomenal world], corresponds to the concept of shunyata stressed by Nagarjuna. . . . Padmasambhava [writes]:

The secret mind of all the buddhas, Omniscient wisdom
Transmitted by the symbol of eternal strength and firmness
Clarity and emptiness, the dorje essence
Like heavenly space --
It is wonderful to see the true face of reality!

In the itihasas and the puranas, the characters move through ‘forests of symbols’ that reveal deeper and deeper levels of meaning. Much of the Indian oral tradition starting from the Vedas has been composed in the Sandhya Bhasha or twilight language. As David Frawley says in Gods, sages and kings: Vedic secrets of ancient civilization, 'The Vedas are filled with mantras, symbols and cryptic statements and codes. They do not reveal themselves readily to those who don't look deeply. It is not enough to have records of the ancients if we do not know how to read them.'

Saturday, June 11, 2011

'Although the significance of sound and speech as the primordial stuff of creation is primarily a post-Rg-vedic concept, it is apparent even in the Rg veda that sound, and especially ritual speech, is powerful, creative, and a mainstay of the cosmic ritual order. The goddess Vac, whose name means speech, reveals herself through speech and is typically characterized by various attributes of speech. She is speech, and the mysteries and miracles of speech express her peculiar, numinous nature...She is the mysterious presence that enables one to hear, see, grasp, and then express in words the true nature of things.’ - David Kinsley in Hindu Goddesses: visions of the divine feminine in the Hindu religious tradition.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Robert Svoboda's brilliant book Kundalini: Aghora II presents a unique esoteric interpretation of the Ramayana. Here, the entire epic is read as an allegory for kundalini awakening wherein Sita (Kundalini Shakti), stuck in Lanka (Mooladhara chakra), is reunited with the Rama (the cosmic consciousness at Sahasradal padma) with help from Hanuman (the power of prana, the life force), Sugreev (the power of the throat chakra) and Lakshman ( the power of will power and concentration on the self). The entire epic is thus re-enacted with the body of the awakened yogi. The interesting thing is that the narrator of this version, the Aghori Vimalanada was a great sadhak of the Mahavidya Tara, the goddess who saves by giving the highest knowledge. The Mahavidya Tara is, according to tradition, identical with Ram. – Swetha